Welcome to the website for the combined MD-PhD Program at Harvard Medical School! The MD-PhD Program seeks to recruit and nurture a community of students who encompass the entire spectrum of diversity within our culture at large.* Students who elect to pursue joint M.D. and Ph.D. degrees through our program will have a unique opportunity to combine medical education and training in a truly exceptional clinical environment with the thrill of scientific discovery in a research setting unmatched elsewhere in the country.

The goal of our program is to train future leaders to work at the interface between science and medicine. To meet this goal, students may choose to pursue graduate research in one of many outstanding programs at Harvard University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Opportunities for graduate research abound in laboratories at Harvard Medical School, in the Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals, and on the Cambridge campuses of both Universities.

Our MD-PhD community consists of about 175 trainees enrolled in either the HST or Pathways MD programs at Harvard Medical School, and a dedicated cohort of leadership and staff who actively participate in academic, collegial and social events held to maintain and foster an esprit de corps. Physician-scientist role models and mentors include a diverse cadre of faculty who are committed to ensuring an excellent training experience for each student. While training is intense and rigorous, our program offers advice, support and celebration for the milestones achieved while pursuing both degrees.

The challenge of blending your scientific and clinical training may take you along any of a number of paths at the leading edge of biomedicine. For some of you, this marriage of degrees may mean working at a basic science level to develop new scientific insights that lead to therapies to promote the health and well being of patients. Others among you may be at the forefront of developing innovative treatments or approaches for hopeful patients with life-threatening diseases like cancer. Whatever route you choose, our program will give you the tools to succeed, and our faculty will be there to guide you on your quest toward a successful and fulfilling life as a physician scientist.

Loren Walensky, M.D., Ph.D.
Director

*The program particularly encourages applications from students who are underrepresented minorities, as well as students with disabilities and students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.